"Life goes on no matter what" Sambawalk's Profile

I have been travelling so frequent that I only update majoy trips.

In June 2011 took 3 week off for safari trip to southern Africa:South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, covering a vast change of landscape, game viewing and thundering Victoria falls.

2010:
->Nov 2010 -Scuba diving in Manado, Indonesia.
-> Oct 2010 - Paris, Loire Valley, Mont St Michel, and St Malo.

-> Aug 2010 - Alaska and Canadian rockies, including:
- 7-day cruise sailing southbound from Alaska to Vancouver.
- visiting Denali National Park, seeing grizzly bears, dall sheeps, moose, wolf and caribou in one single trip;
- arctic circle;
- scenic flight to see glaciers in Mt Mckinley;
- helicopter ride and glaciers walk;
- columbia icefield and lunch at Chateau Louise hotel in rocky mountain.

2009:
-> Dec 2009 - Italy, including St. Peter's square, Vatican attending the mass and blessing by the Pope, Rome, Assisi, Oriventa, Naples, Sorrento, and Sicily. It was 20 years ago when I first visited Italy (Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice) and again to Milan, Genoa, Verona , and Trieste in 2004.

-> Jul/Aug 09 - Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine, and stopover in Istanbul.

-> June 09 - Taipei and Mumbai, India.

Other trips: East Malaysia, Borneo in Sabah and Sarawak for rainforest and jungle trekking.
- Sep 09 - Labuan.
- Apr 09 - Miri and Mulu National Park and the Pinnacles.
- Feb & Apr 09 - Kuching, visiting Bako NP and Gunung Gading National Park.

2008:
-> Oct 08 - scuba diving in Sipadan island, Sandakan, and a 3D2N Kinabatangan river safari in Sabah.
-> Nov 05 - climbing Mount Kinabalu and visited Kota Kinabalu.

-> Dec 08 - Langkawi

-> Sep 2008 - Bordeaux, Saint Emilion, and Paris.

-> May 2008 - Yemen and Iran. These countries are great and friendly. My trip to Yemen includes few of the UNESCO world heritage sites.

2007:
-> Oct-Nov 07, Boston, Toronto, Florida, including 7 days Holland Amercia West Carribean cruise - Belize, Gatamela , and Cozumel, Mexico. It was an very enjoyable trip with relaxing experience on the cruise.

In Jun 07, I went Paris and Lyon. After that, I met up with VT member Mark in Liverpool and he drove up to Scottish Highlands for 4 days sightseeing and camping. We had good time, including cooking hot meals and English breakfast in the camp site, and had rounds of rounds of beer in local pubs. Mark, thank you for the time. Before and after that trip, I also visited London, Oxford, York, and Edinburgh.

Other trips in 2007 are as follows:
>>Ho Chin Minh City, Vietnam in Apr 07
>>Shanghai, China in May & Aug 07

In 2006, I took several vacations to visit different parts of the world:
> Krabi and Phi Phi Island in Thailand in Dec,
> Australia, including Tasmania, Sydney, Adelaide, Great Ocean Road, and Melbourne in Oct-Nov.
> Egypt in April
> Morocco in March, and
> Sri Lanka in Jan.

So far I have visited six of the seven ancient wonders of the world, namely the Pyramids in Egypt, the Great Wall in China, Borobudur in Indonesia, the Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Acropolis in Greece, and the Taj Mahal in India. I believe it will take some years to visit the last one, the Babylon's Hanging Garden in Iraq.

Since 1981, I have been to 60+ countries. In the 80s, I travelled extensively in mainland China, Japan, Canada, USA, Mexico, continential Europe and former eastern blocked European countries (including the former Yugoslavia). In the 90s, I made several landmark trips, such as taking trans-siberia railway from China to Moscow, travelling in Tibet and along the Silk Road via the Karakoram highway to Pakistan. Since early 2000, I have already visited 8 Middle Eastern Arab and Islamic countries and Iran (Persian). I also revisited the post Yugoslavia countries - Slovenia and Croatia.

Dambulla Cave, Sri Lanka (Feb 2006)

Wine Drinking
As a wine drinker, my extensive travelling allows me to try out local wine from different countries, including wines from Lebanon, Morocco, Crotia, and Egypt. Other vineyards that I have visited include Barossa in South Australia, Tamar Valley in Tasmania, and Marborough, New Zealand, Champange-Reims, and Bordeaux and Saint Emilion in France. Happy travelling and drinking!

You can see the most recent pics in my travelling pages. As for the trips
that I made before 2003, it takes time to digitalise my slides. %f*
A 2-week short but compact visit of this beautiful island of Sri Lanka made me realise that there much more this country can offer, from diving to safari, anicent hertiage site to modern tea plantation.

Bled Lake, Slovenia (June 2005)

Bled lake is 2km long emerald green lake with a little Bled island and church in the centre and a dramatic castle towering overhead. Trout and carp proliferate in the clear water, which is pleasure for swimming in summer time. The Julian Alps and Mt Truglav (2864m) forms an excellent backdrop of the Bled Castle. See Slovenia

In the same trip, I visited Croatia, Hungary, northern Italy, Nice France and Blackpool and
Liverpool England.

Apemea, Syria

Syria has the best historical sites and ruins in the Middle East. Last visit was Nov 2004.

In the same trip, I visited Jordan , Lebanon and Dubai

Diving, Hurghada, Egypt (May 06)

Diving under the water can e.nrich your appreciation of marine life. I started diving since 2001. I hold advanced open water diver certification. My diving experience are as follows:

> Exploration dive in Great Barrier Reef, Australia (Sep 2001)
> Maldives, (Dec 2001)
> Pulau Aur, Pulau Timon, and Kota Kinabaru, in Malaysia (2004, 2005, 2006)
> Aqaba, the red sea of Jordan (Nov 2004)
> Adriatic Sea in Dubrovnik, Croatia (June 2005)
> Unawatuna, , Sri Lanka (Feb 2006)
> Dahab and Hurghada in Red Sea, Egypt (April-May 2006)
> Phi Phi Island, Thailand (Dec 2006)
> Cozumel, Mexico (Nov 2007)
>Sipadan island (Oct 2008)
>Langkawi (Dec 2008)
>Miri (May 2009)
> Manado (Nov 2010)

Ballroom dancing competition

In addition to travelling, I enjoy ballroom and latin dancing and have entered various dance competitions in South East Asia. I have an associate membership with the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing in United Kingdom and am qualified for teaching.

At end of May 2005, I finally fulfilled my dream to visit Blackpool, England and witnessed the annual Blackpool Dance Festival. It is an annual event that all ballroom and latin dancers should not miss once in their life time.

You can see some of the pictures taken in that festiva Blackpool Dance Festival 2005

Let's tango!